Bob Cardenas

Spacefest 3 (no- it's not a Star Trek convention) started on Thursday evening (6/2/2011) with a VIP reception where you could mingle with the astronauts and speakers. I spent some time speaking with General Bob Cardenas who, at 91 years of age, has probably had a more fascinating life/career than any of the famous astronauts in attendance. He was telling me about how his plane was shot down in Germany during WW ll, but he evaded capture by the Nazis and escaped into Switzerland. He was supposed to remain in Switzerland for the remainder of the war, but a woman who was part of the French resistance helped him escape into France and from there he was able rejoin the allies who flew him to England and then back to the United States where he could recover from a head wound. Cardenas said the woman who helped him escape was eventually caught and killed by the Nazis.

He had a long and varied career after the war. A couple of highlights include serving as the command pilot of the B-29 that launched Chuck Yeager in the supersonic aircraft (the Bell X-1) on the flight that broke the sound barrier. (The following pictures are from Cardenas' presentation the following day at Spacefest.)


Cardenas also flew the YB-49, the precursor to today's B-2 stealth bomber. In 1949, he was summoned to Washington to demo the plane for President Truman. Truman asked him to fly the aircraft down Pennsylvania Avenue at treetop level. All of the trees made it difficult to see so it wasn't until the last minute he was able to see the white dome of the capitol building. He was forced to pull up abruptly in order to avoid crashing into the building.


I encourage you to check out his biography. It's fascinating.